The Peralta Community College District’s Board of Trustees decided in a closed-door session Tuesday night to break off discussions between Chancellor Jowel Laguerre and the A’s, who were hoping to build a privately financed stadium on land owned by the district.

“I think what the board decided to do is take seriously the potential of developing the land that Peralta owns,” Laguerre said in an interview with this news organization on Wednesday. “We look at what our needs are and what our assets are and what are the best partnerships.”

While the board is not ruling out the idea of a ballpark altogether, Laguerre said, evaluating the “best” uses for the site could take a long time — longer than the deadline the A’s would need if the team wants its new stadium ready by 2023, as it has indicated in the past.

“It would have taken us a long time to give (the A’s) an answer,” Laguerre said. “This frees them to make other plans.”

The A’s issued a statement Wednesday morning expressing their surprise but did not address what it means to their future plans to build a park.

“We are shocked by Peralta’s decision to not move forward,” the team said. “All we wanted to do was enter into a conversation about how to make this work for all of Oakland, Laney and the Peralta Community College District. We are disappointed that we will not have that opportunity.”

The news marks the latest in a string of setbacks for the A’s in their years-long quest to find a new home, following unsuccessful efforts to move to Fremont and San Jose. The aging Coliseum, where they’ve played since 1968, is considered among the worst venues for baseball in the major leagues, and is the only stadium shared by NFL and major league baseball teams.

So where does this leave the A’s? Team President David Kaval has said previously that the club had no alternative plan if the Peralta one failed. The team did not respond to requests for comment on Wednesday.

“I’ve read and heard where the team has said there’s no Plan B,” said former team executive Andy Dolich, now the owner and operator of a sports consulting firm. “That just doesn’t ring true to me in any kind of project this large. Generally, you have plans A, B, C, D all the way to Z in projects like this, because there are so many aspects to them. Not having any other plan would not be logical.”

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The A’s also have indicated they are not interested in building on the current Coliseum site, or renovating their current home. Much of the infrastructure already would be in place, and the A’s would be the lone tenant after the pending departures of the Raiders to Las Vegas and the Warriors to San Francisco.

“If there really is no B, maybe that could lead to Plan C, which is the Coliseum,” Dolich said.

Students and faculty at Laney College overwhelmingly disapproved nearly three months ago of the A’s plan to acquire a 15-acre parcel and transform it into a ballpark village, complete with housing, retail and entertainment venues. Local businesses were also opposed to being potentially replaced by the A’s ballpark.

The Asian Pacific Environmental Network expressed concern in a November statement that renters in the Chinatown and Eastlake neighborhoods would be displaced.

Environmental advocates, including conservation group Golden Gate Audubon Society, have decried the potential plans for the Peralta site as harmful to Lake Merritt and animals who use the lake and estuary as food sources.

In rejecting the A’s bid, the Board of Trustees instructed the chancellor to focus on the needs of the college’s students and teachers. Laguerre did not give any ideas as to what uses the site could have, saying only that the district wants to determine — through discussion with the campus and neighborhood communities — the “best use” for the site.

In a statement posted on Twitter, Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf said the city “remains fiercely determined to keep” the club in Oakland.

“It is unfortunate the discussion with Peralta ended so abrubtly,” she wrote. “Yet, we’re committed, more than ever, to working with the A’s and our community to find the right spot in Oakland for a privately financed ballpark.”